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Archive for the ‘London’ Category

I made these biscuits absolutely weeks ago, when Kimberly and her man came round to look at art (Kimberly isn't a lazy blogger like me so you can read her post here to find out more). They’re another recipe from Homemade Cookies by Jacqueline Bellefontaine, which as I’ve said before is a considerably better book than the cover would have you believe.

The biscuits themselves were lovely, very lemony. But to be honest I didn’t think an awful lot of the cream cheese filling.

They got off to a bad start when I realised that Mark had bought cream cheese with garlic and chives (thankfully I realised this before making the filling). Perhaps I overfilled them slightly, in all I just don’t think the filling was necessary. If I made them again then I’d probably leave them plain.

I don’t think it’s fair for me to type out the recipe here, and I’ve looked and can’t find anything similar on the web. So you’ll all have go and buy the book.

Completely unrelated – here are five things that annoy me about the tube.

1. People at Regent’s Park station who get on the lifts on the wrong side
2. The way students on english language trips always stop at the bottom and top of escalators in large groups
3. Why doesn’t New Cross have a departures board for the London Overground. How am I meant to know if it’s going to be quicker getting a train if the wait for the tube isn’t listed!
4. Tourists that wait until they get to the gate before trying to find their oyster/travel card
5. People that sit with a bag on the seat next to them and don’t move it when the train is heaving. I’ve startd to single these people out and sit next to them even if there are loads of other empty seats. It really brings a smile to my face.

So maybe it’s not so bad that I’m soon not going to have to use the tube at all.

Sorry for not blogging for so long, those of you that know me (so that’s everyone reading this blog from what I can gather!) will know this is because the last month has been a little on the tiring side (is that how you spell tiring?). So in the last couple of weeks some of my energy has returned and I’ve managed to finish my first Ruffles baby related project.
This is the b18-10 Jacket in Moss Stitch by Drops. It’s a free pattern, very easy to follow, and knits up quickly. However, the seams are really bulky, so I’m not sure I’d knit it again. I’m pretty sure you could knit this in the round, and then just sew the arms on (which you could also knit in the round). Not sure that I like seaming…also I’m wondering it they will irritate a baby.
I’d like to make a matching hat like this one by pinktimestwo…but I’m not sure how many to cast on for the moss stitch. Decreases etc wouldn’t be a problem but not sure about the cast on. Definetly have enough wool left.
Mark and I went to Kew Gardens on Saturday…so here are some pictures from the day. It was lovely, and not too busy. I think this was helped by the fact that first thing in the morning it was really wet. However, this also meant that I was wearing jeans and a three quarter length sleeved black top – which meant I was boiling hot all day. My favourite part of the gardens was the Temperate House, but the Palm House (below) looked better from the outside with the large lavender beds leading up to it.
We also loved the Waterlily House – small but really interesting. They had lots of carniverous plants, and those ones that have leaves that close when you stroke them (although clearly Mark and I were the only people that knew this – as we were the only one poking at them).
There were some lovely statues/sculptures outside the Palm House showing heraldic animals. This bull was one of my favourites, I think the sky looks particularly threatening and war-like in this picture.
And finally a couple of pictures of tree ferns…I’m going to miss Terence, our tree fern, when we move to Geneva.
And a little close up too.
If you’re still here then you must like plants and trees, so can anyone tell me – is this a Horse Chestnut. I think it is but am now full of doubt, the leaves don’t look quite right.
And that’s your lot – I’ve been gone for a long time but at least you got lots of pictures of my return! I can also guarantee that there will be two more posts in the next week or so as I’ve already uploaded the pictures.

On Friday night I went to the Grace Kelly exhibition at the V&A with my friend Hannah. It was a great exhbition although I really thought it could do with a bit more information about Kelly before she got engaged to Price Rainier.

My two favourite outfits were the suit that she wore to her civil wedding ceremony, and the blue dress (which I cannot find a picture of anywhere on the internet) which she wore for the formal presentation of her wedding presents (I feel I missed an opportunity there for another outfit at my own wedding).
On Saturday Mark and I went for lunch in Crystal Palace to find out if we wanted to live there…we decided we don’t think we do. We had a nice lunch at The Exhbition Rooms though and we saw lots of Mini’s on the London to Brighton Mini Run.

In the evening we saw Robin Hood at the cinema, which was a reasonable way to spend an evening, although not really my sort of film. I liked Cate Blanchett a lot.

Then today we went to Columbia Road flower market with the lovely Kimberley and Simon. It’s so incredibly busy at Columbia Road but we managed to fight our way to Beyond Fabrics where I got some fabric for a project I’m planning (I’m unlikely to start it anytime soon but as we were in the neighbourhood it seemed like a good idea).
And there was still time for a bit of knitting when I got home….which I will (I know I keep promising this) blog about this week – it has not been plain sailing. And to leave you heres a picture of the roses and peonies I bought – aren’t they lovely – hopefully they’ve open up and be even prettier.
Hope you all had a lovely weekend!